“I think I’m insulted. The thought of marrying me is enough to shut you down completely.”
“Funny, you don’t sound particularly insulted.” She had to get them off this subject—the sooner, the better—so she went on the offense. “If you’re hoping for a repeat of that night, you’re in for the disappointment of a lifetime. I’m never letting you touch me again.”
A strange smile pulled at the edges of his lips. “Liar.”
She jerked back, her heart beating too hard. He wasn’t flustered or worried or anything, except arrogant. “You’re an insufferable jackass.” Now was the time to get up and walk away, and put him in her rearview for good. But Carrigan had always had a nasty habit of playing with fire, and James was scorching hot.
“Guilty.” He stood and moved around the table, slow and purposeful, to sit next to her, entirely too close. She started to shift away, but his heavy arm dropped around her shoulder. The feeling of his bare skin across her shoulders made her whole body clench up. Torn between wanting to bolt and wanting to crawl into his lap, she froze.
James had no such problem. He wound a lock of her hair around his finger. “You want me, lovely. You want me so bad you burn with it.”
With every turn of his finger, he brushed her bare shoulder with his knuckles, the gentle touch making things low in her stomach coil tighter and tighter. She dug her nails into her palms. She wasn’t weak and she wasn’t afraid, and she sure as fuck wasn’t going to melt into a puddle at his feet just because he’d casually touched her. “You’re wrong.”
James wasn’t wrong. Across the careful distance he’d created between their bodies, he had no problems picking out the signs of desire. Her pulse fluttered, heart beating too hard; her pupils dilated, and her nipples pressed against the thin fabric of her sad excuse for a dress. The damn thing barely covered her from breasts to ass, and the fit was enough to tell anyone who cared to look that she wore nothing underneath. It wasn’t the same one she’d worn they night they hooked up, but it was close enough to make his mouth water. The fire in her eyes as she did her best to take him out at the knees only made him want her more.
He leaned closer, still keeping the precious inches between their bodies. He might want this woman more than sanity, but she was like some kind of wild creature that’d wandered into his life. One false move and it was over. Letting her go last night was the right thing to do. He’d piqued her curiosity, added a healthy dose of anger and, maybe, she felt even a sliver of the desire that threatened to take his common sense and turn him into a goddamn fool.
But he had to play this right or she’d be gone for good. It’d be better for both of them if she was. Smarter. But taking the safe and smart road didn’t stand a chance with a woman like her looking at him with that expression in her eyes. His lips brushed her ear, her rose scent teasing him. “I’m not wrong, lovely. You crave me the same way I crave you.”
“I don’t.” The words were barely more than a whisper, almost lost in the demanding beat drifting up from the dance floor.
“You do. And if I slipped my hand up your dress, I’d find you wet and wanting.” Fuck, he wanted to do just that. Only sheer stubbornness kept his free hand away from her when she shivered. “It wouldn’t take much, would it? A few strokes to make your eyes slide shut and your head fall back. Circle that sensitive little clit of yours and feel you come apart around me.”
Her back arched, so slight that he would have missed it if every fiber of his being wasn’t focused on her. “No…”
He had to get the fuck away from her before he did exactly what he’d just described. The VIP room was far from packed and, even if it hadn’t been, no one would blink an eye at two people hooking up in the shadows. But it wouldn’t get him anywhere with Carrigan, aside from a few moments of pleasure. Then she’d be gone, and he had the feeling he wouldn’t be seeing her again in the near future—if ever.
That didn’t suit his purposes one goddamn bit.
So he pressed a soft kiss to the sensitive spot behind her ear and backed the fuck off. When she turned and blinked those big green eyes at him, he almost threw caution to the wind and kissed her. Only the knowledge that it wouldn’t stop with a kiss, wouldn’t stop until he was buried between her thighs, kept him from giving in. “I’ll be seeing you, Carrigan O’Malley.”
Still holding her gaze, he grabbed his beer and drained the rest of it. He’d already taken care of the tab with the bartender, so he stood and, with one last look at her, walked away. It felt unnatural to do it, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the fire in his blood for Carrigan wasn’t going away. He’d been so sure it would, that seeing her again would be enough to bring common sense rushing back and remind him that she was the enemy and he’d done the right thing when he’d chosen his family over her.